Bit Kid

Seven suggestions up for debate. Tell me what you think.

1. When you are grabbing and hanging onto a ledge, you should be able to throw magic items such as throwing knives or boomerang.
2. Not often, but on long stretches it may be nice to have an enemy drop sort sort of partial health and/or mana recharge. Or, have a breakable corner with an item in it, similar to a turkey in Castlevania. I will admit the game kind of takes care of this in another way, if you just collect bottles and fill them with potions.
3. I'm very biased on this because of the games that i love in genre, but I would like to see some breakable walls leading to secret rooms or even just secret items.
4. Maybe in at least one spot of the game have a secret area you sink into through the quick sand.
5. The old man with the shop that randomly appears in the save rooms is easy to make appear by coming in and out of the room over and over so it doesnt really feel that special when you see him. Should he at least carry more of a variety of items that can be very different each time you see him.
6. I'm very happy with the graphic style, but it looks too 'pixelated' at higher resolutions. I know emulators can smooth out old snes roms at higher resolutions and i'm sure this game can too.
7. The music is great, but I feel like when you pick up an ability or secret item, it could have a more epic or memorable tune.

For what its worth, I play and beat almost every metroidvania game to 100% completion. The Metroid series , the 2D Castlevania series, and Shadow Complex are some of my favorites. Overall I can tell I will actually love this game. I love the gameplay and jumping gameplay. I think the music, thus far, is great.

1. I think they're still undecided on attacking from a ledge. It seems like a limited scope of use feature, and it would punish those who choose to play with 2H given the way rooms are crafted. So I think it's unlikely to see that implimented.

2. Mana does drop from enemies, though I can agree it's a little on the low side. It definitely keeps you from doing magic only. It would be nice to have a little health drop as well, though, seeing as how enemies only respawn after you've visited a campfire and subsequently heal. I don't see any downside given the current monster environment other than further devaluing health as a stat to increase.

3. It's a secret to everyone. But eventually there will be secrets. ;D Speaking of secrets, the backtrack paths could really use some extra rooms, possibly utilizing the new mechanic (sliding, ledge grab, flip jump) required to access them. A collection of area-themed bonus rooms instead of just "I came, I looted, I left again" with no enemies or anything fun. But that's something to be fleshed out once progression has been completely implemented.

4. I can agree that right now, the quicksand feels a little... pointless. I don't know if it'll be used in other areas, but it might as well be a floor made of obnoxious glue substance. I think it's amusing how you can drown in it, but there was no depth variation, no damaging spikes at the bottom, nothing to really set one quicksand section apart from the next, or encourage you to actually sink for even a puzzle. Again, I don't know if quicksand will appear later in the game, but its uses could certainly be improved.

5. It's been stated before that he's going to have a bit different of a function, so consider him a placeholder in his current state.

6. That one is an art style choice to maintain the rigid edges of the pixels. I believe that art direction has held true since the beginning. I've personally not been bothered by it, heh.

7. Once they have 4-5 areas completed, I'd start commenting about the music and the jingles and stuff. I feel like things aren't far enough along content-wise to really criticize it.

sunil49ers wrote:Seven suggestions up for debate. Tell me what you think.

1. When you are grabbing and hanging onto a ledge, you should be able to throw magic items such as throwing knives or boomerang.

I'm in agreement with Tobias on this one. It doesn't seem likely to be implemented due to balance issues and I personally wouldn't care for it as it would make the game easier.

sunil49ers wrote:2. Not often, but on long stretches it may be nice to have an enemy drop sort sort of partial health and/or mana recharge. Or, have a breakable corner with an item in it, similar to a turkey in Castlevania. I will admit the game kind of takes care of this in another way, if you just collect bottles and fill them with potions.

I don't like this idea. I think the bottle and camp fire systems work perfectly for the game and promotes being careful instead of reckless.

sunil49ers wrote:3. I'm very biased on this because of the games that i love in genre, but I would like to see some breakable walls leading to secret rooms or even just secret items.

4. Maybe in at least one spot of the game have a secret area you sink into through the quick sand.

I wholeheartedly agree that there needs to be secrets. Also, nice Portrait of Ruin reference.

sunil49ers wrote:5. The old man with the shop that randomly appears in the save rooms is easy to make appear by coming in and out of the room over and over so it doesnt really feel that special when you see him. Should he at least carry more of a variety of items that can be very different each time you see him.

Though I'm aware the developers already have plans for him, I agree that he's too easy to spawn. As for his stock, in it's current form it works. As he only carries items that you will never find in that play-through from how the developers described him, I could be wrong. If that is indeed the case, him having a set inventory is fine.

I will say though that the actual number of items he carries shouldn't be random. I've had runs were he had 12 items and runs were he had 4 (Bottle excluded)

sunil49ers wrote:6. I'm very happy with the graphic style, but it looks too 'pixelated' at higher resolutions. I know emulators can smooth out old snes roms at higher resolutions and i'm sure this game can too.

Oh boy.
1. The pixelation is entirely the point, it's pixel art.
2. Asking for screen filters is an insult to the artists. You might as well tell them to completely re-drawn everything at high resolution, as that's what you're implying.

Sure, we all know emulators have filters. Now, do the games themselves? No. For good reason.

sunil49ers wrote:7. The music is great, but I feel like when you pick up an ability or secret item, it could have a more epic or memorable tune.

The music and sounds are great in my opinion. Also, as Tobias said it's too early to really judge.

Thanks for the feedback. I concede on the pixels debate. I dont know what i was i thinking. It really isthe point of the art style, lol, and I like it. I just have one of those monitors with a really high resolution and it just was not playable full screen.

I understand its too early to judge the sound, but I do hope they make memorable tunes that play when you find an upgrade or secret. Metroid and Zelda noises are engraved in our brains.

Your point on health drops - THe Metroid games made their respawning enemies a big part of the game, instead of simply annoying obstacles, by making health drops very important. Before a boss you might go raid a few rooms looking for big energy chunks to fill up your energy. Could be similar in Chasm.

I really like the chunky resolution, means I can fullscreen the game and play from my couch on my standard PC monitor. It's just like playing a SNES game!

'3. It's a secret to everyone. But eventually there will be secrets. ;D Speaking of secrets, the backtrack paths could really use some extra rooms, possibly utilizing the new mechanic (sliding, ledge grab, flip jump) required to access them. A collection of area-themed bonus rooms instead of just "I came, I looted, I left again" with no enemies or anything fun. But that's something to be fleshed out once progression has been completely implemented.'

This!

The alpha is excellent. I am hoping in the full version there will be a bit more to explore back in the zones you have already 'finished', as the maps seem a bit empty. And secrets as well.

There will be a whole lot more of everything, more stuff to explore and more to it, and of course secrets We have to get a good solid base down first though before we start focusing on the details.

Beefybeef wrote:'3. It's a secret to everyone. But eventually there will be secrets. ;D Speaking of secrets, the backtrack paths could really use some extra rooms, possibly utilizing the new mechanic (sliding, ledge grab, flip jump) required to access them. A collection of area-themed bonus rooms instead of just "I came, I looted, I left again" with no enemies or anything fun. But that's something to be fleshed out once progression has been completely implemented.'

This!

The alpha is excellent. I am hoping in the full version there will be a bit more to explore back in the zones you have already 'finished', as the maps seem a bit empty. And secrets as well.

I completely agree, i liked how there were reasons to backtrack areas after receiving new abilities, and i wouldnt mind more.

sunil49ers wrote:

Beefybeef wrote:'3. It's a secret to everyone. But eventually there will be secrets. ;D Speaking of secrets, the backtrack paths could really use some extra rooms, possibly utilizing the new mechanic (sliding, ledge grab, flip jump) required to access them. A collection of area-themed bonus rooms instead of just "I came, I looted, I left again" with no enemies or anything fun. But that's something to be fleshed out once progression has been completely implemented.'

This!

The alpha is excellent. I am hoping in the full version there will be a bit more to explore back in the zones you have already 'finished', as the maps seem a bit empty. And secrets as well.

I completely agree, i liked how there were reasons to backtrack areas after receiving new abilities, and i wouldnt mind more.

I'm not sure if any of You ever played any game from Mega Man Battle Network series. The world in games from this series was open, yet once a player cleared given stage, he never again entered it, because there was nothing interesting in it anymore.

Well... except Mega Man Battle Network 3. In this game player had to visit the previously cleared stages quite often, either to find clues about the plot, or to find strongest versions of the bosses we already beat (post story content, there are 15 bosses to find and kill, and upon killing them we receive their highest Giga class chip), or to find families (and their stronger versions, bosses) of the viruses that are attacking in the neverending random encounters.

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What I want to say that Chasm always would feature some stronger versions of the already killed bosses, and some other side quests and surprises, like for example a giant bat...

What I loved most in the MMBN3 was the Virus Breeder. As mentioned above, we had to find virus families (some weak versions and recoloured stronger version) of viruses. Upon defeating them they were sent to the Breeder, and we were able to feed them. The more we feeded them, the stronger enemies of that kind were on the field. Read: Virus Breeder allowed us to increase the difficulty of the game by raising the attack strength and hit points of the enemies.

I never knew about MMBN3 being like that, it sounds great. I'm gonna try it out, thanks!